Automobile.

Well, the Prius is everything I thought it could be. Here are some pictures for you, so I don't flood this page with them. I haven't yet driven the precious car, but my day will come. I'm actually quite nervous to drive something so new and shiny. So far, we're averaging 42 mpg. Not bad. And that's before figuring out all of the little energy-saving tips that can boost our mileage up another notch. In a week or so we'll head back to Wichita for a care-care class at the dealership, which cracks me up. But we'll be good new car owners and go to the class with our fellow new car owners.

Here's a long story all about red tape:

Today's adventure involved a series of phone calls to various offices at Washburn. The bureaucracy at this fine institution certainly tops all the curve-balls that K-State tried to throw at me. See, this is my third year at Washburn. And a couple of weeks ago, the secretary in the Psych office told me that the admissions people needed my undergraduate transcript before I could go back to school this year. I was perplexed at this request, as I submitted said transcript in order to be admitted to my program two years ago. But I played along and did the legwork and Washburn got a brand new copy of my K-State transcript.

Of course, I knew that it could not be so simple. So I called the financial aid office today to get a verbal confirmation that I'd be getting my money in time to go to school this semester (a trick I learned after receiving four different excuses for my check not coming in on time over the previous four semesters). They said that everything looks fine and I didn't really believe them. I told them the strange transcript story, and they said they'd double-check. Two minutes later, they miraculously discover that admissions has me marked as "incomplete" and there's a hold on everything until that's fixed.

Smiling and shaking my head at Washburn's attempts to stop me from being a student there, I called the admissions office. The guy on the phone explained with much hesitation that there is indeed a hold on my enrollment at Washburn. I explained the transcript story to him, and he said, "That's strange, because we have your K-State transcript from 2005 right here. Oh, and we have the new one too." Okay, there's a start. At least something is working, because they did get the transcript I had K-State send over. But then the guy started asking me if I went anywhere else for undergrad, and I explained that I studied in Australia for a semester but that it was on my K-State transcript and that is official. He put me on hold for about five minutes, then returned and told me to call back tomorrow to talk to the head honcho who wasn't in today. I have a sneaking suspicion that said honcho is going to ask me to get my transcript from Australia. My cooperation may have to end there.

To be continued...

(For those of you keeping count, there are nine weekends between now and the wedding. And I'm currently free during one of them!)